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KHAN AL-AHMAR, West Bank – Having grown up in the hills east of Jerusalem, Eid Jahalin never expected to lobby in the corridors of the US Congress.
But that's how the 51-year-old spent last week, while the small group of huts that he calls his hometown is threatened with demolition by Israeli bulldozers.
The Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, inhabited by 173 people, may seem unpretentious, with wooden houses and tarpaulins surrounded by animal parks. But its strategic location places it at the heart of the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
If Israel demolished the village and other surrounding Bedouin communities and built here as planned, the Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank would be split in two, with an isolated part of any future capital in East Jerusalem.
[U.N. concerned over planned demolition of West Bank village]
Khan al-Ahmar has been fighting demolition for decades, but the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in May that its destruction was legal, and in recent weeks Israel has begun to prepare to demolish the village with bulldozers.
While European countries, including Ireland, France and Britain, have spoken out against these plans and human rights decry the forcible transfer of Khan's residents. Ahmar as a war crime, the United States remain silent.
Palestinian officials say the silence of the United States equals a green light. The Trump administration, they say, allows Israel to erode their rights without even limited censorship.
"They want to kill our last hope for a state," Jahalin said. The former tractor driver met with staff members of nearly 30 US lawmakers from both sides during his visit to Washington. The trip was organized by the Rebuilding Alliance, a non-profit organization based in California.
A White House National Security Council spokesman said it would be "premature to comment on an ongoing court process" and referred questions to the Israeli government.
[Israel’s Bedouin resettlement plan draws protests]
"In general, we continue to encourage both parties to create an environment conducive to negotiations for a comprehensive and lasting peace," the spokesman said.
Israeli officials say that Bedouins, historically nomadic Arabs whose tribes have long traveled through the desert regions of the Middle East and North Africa, are being manipulated by the Palestinian authorities for political purposes. Officials note that the villagers of Khan al-Ahmar were offered another location near the suburbs of Jerusalem Abu Dis.
But residents say that they are determined to stay.
The Bedouin Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar on July 5, 2018. (Thomas Coex / AFP / Getty Images)
"I was born here," said Faisal Abu Dahouk, 43, a shepherd sitting under a net of shadow. in the courtyard of the school of Khan al-Ahmar, which was built thanks to funding from the European Union.
Most residents are members of the Jahalin tribe, which the Israeli army expelled from the southern Negev desert of Israel in the early 1950s. Jahalin Bedouin were transferred to the area. Kfar Adumim in the West Bank in 1952, to be moved back to their current location when an Israeli colony was built there.
In 1954, many Bedouin remaining in Israeli territory obtained citizenship, but the resettled Jahalins were not. Thousands of Israeli Bedouins have served in the Israel Defense Forces, many as stalkers, but even in Israel, unauthorized Bedouin communities are living under the threat of demolition.
[ After decades of service, some Bedouins are unsure of the Israeli army]
Israeli restrictions have long forced Bedouin communities to abandon their nomadic way of life, said Abu Dahouk . "Israel prevented us from moving, one way or the other," he said. "It's a military zone or a colony."
A Palestinian occupies his animals in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank on July 6, 2018. (Mohamad Torokman / Reuters)
Where he sits, one can see the rooftops Kfar Adumim red, the Israeli settlement established in 1979, spread on a nearby hill.
"We are not allowed to build a single concrete room," he said. The village school was built from tires and mud to circumvent the restrictions.
Israel considers illegal Khan al-Ahmar because it was built without a license, although a large part of the international community argues that it is Kfar Adumim that was built illegally. The inhabitants of the Bedouin village say that they have never had the chance to obtain building permits.
The Israeli government offers another site to residents, but the community says it's not suitable, being near a dump and without access to grazing. Earth.
[ Policeman, driver killed in a clash after the Israelis left to shave the Bedouin village]
In their fight, the Bedouins gathered support from an unexpected corner: a group of Inhabitants of Kfar Adumim. It was an Israeli magazine article about the village last fall that prompted them to take action, said Ezra Korman, 56, a tour guide. A group of 41 residents wrote to the court a letter in favor of the Bedouins, urging him to find an acceptable solution for the Bedouins.
"We decided that we wanted to help them from a human rights perspective," said Korman. "We know they were there before we came in. They are our neighbors."
But the petitioners are in the minority. Last week, members of a right-wing group gathered on a hill overlooking the village and demonstrated in favor of the demolition, waving Israeli flags.
The inhabitants from below were preparing for the worst, with security forces declaring the area military zone closed. Journalists and activists were prevented from entering the village. They had to walk through the hills to reach it. Yellow bulldozers pbaded in front of children playing under the trees of the schoolyard.
[Activists protest planned demolition in West Bank]
Last week, the village was granted a stay when the Supreme Court accepted a separate petition arguing that the Israeli authorities had not reviewed the plans of Khan al-Ahmar residents for their village. The court gave the state until Wednesday to do it. A new injunction Monday delayed the forced transfer of residents of the village until at least next week.
Leftist human rights groups argued that removal from the village could be a war crime. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment, but Israel argues that governments around the world are repairing areas and displacing residents.
For the villagers, their long-term uncertainty persists.
"We sleep frightened, we wake up scared," said Tahreer Abu Dahouk, 44, a mother of four. "Leave us alone," she said. "It's the best place for us."
Palestinians opposed a planned demolition stand on an Israeli bulldozer in the Bedouin village of al-Khan al-Ahmar near Jericho in the occupied West Bank on July 4, 2018. (Mohamad Torokman / Reuters )
Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.
To find out more:
How Israel transforms a part of the Negev desert into a cyber-city
10 teenagers swept away by a sudden flood in the Israeli desert
In Israel, these camels graze the land lowest of the Earth
Today's cover of post-correspondents from around the world
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